Raising a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) costs American families an estimated $5.8 billion every year—five times more than raising a child without ADHD—according to a new study by researchers at FIU’s Center for Children and Families.
This is the first study to calculate children’s social, behavioral and academic difficulties into a family’s cost of raising a child with ADHD.
“Despite the extensive research that has been done on the impairments related to ADHD, not much research has been done on the financial burden it has had on families,” said Xin Alisa Zhao, lead author of the study and doctoral student in the FIU Department of Psychology. “A comprehensive understanding of the financial burden of raising a child with ADHD is a vital aspect of advocating for, justifying, and planning interventions for families of children with ADHD.”
Children with ADHD often have academic and behavioral difficulties in the classroom that lead to additional costs for families, including private tutoring, summer classes, computer software or other learning services beyond those provided by the education system. These children also frequently lose belongings and school supplies requiring replacement, experience dismissal from extracurricular activities, and miss lessons or extracurricular activities after parents have already paid fees or purchased equipment.
“On average, families of kids with ADHD spent $15,036 per child—not including treatment—and families of kids without ADHD spent $2,848 over the course of a child’s development,” said economist Timothy F. Page of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. “There are other sources of elevated cost to families above and beyond medication and services directly related to treatment for ADHD that were not being accounted for in previous estimates.”
In addition, teens diagnosed with ADHD in childhood have a higher rate of car accidents, likely resulting in out-of-pocket expenses due to damaged vehicles, fines, tickets and increased costs of automobile insurance. Some families may also experience high economic burden associated with delinquency including costs of legal defense.
The study also looked at other costs related to caregiver strain and found that parents reported income loss due to being fired and changed job responsibilities, income loss from missed work, additional childcare expenses, and treatment for the parent’s mental health concerns. Besides financial and occupational impact, caregivers also experienced socio-emotional burden including strained relationships between parenting partners, difficulty engaging in pleasurable social activities, high parenting stress, and substance or alcohol problems.
“ADHD is the most common childhood mental health problem, which if left untreated, allows for children with mental health issues to grow into adults with more prevalent, complex and costly problems that affect the whole family,” said William E. Pelham, Jr., director of FIU’s Center for Children and Families. “The most important thing parents of children with ADHD can do is get help as early as possible to learn effective behavioral strategies that will help to offset some of these costs and prevent more serious issues in adulthood.”
This study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology and was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
About the FIU Center for Children and Families:
The Center for Children and Families (CCF) is a Preeminent Program at Florida International University comprised of a nationally recognized team of researchers and service providers committed to improving the lives of children and families struggling with mental health problems. The CCF is a one-stop care facility that provides effective, low-cost treatments to more than 3,000 families each year through clinical services and research programs. With a team of more than 30 of the nation’s best researchers and experts, the assistance of federal funding and university partnerships, the CCF continues to make discoveries about the cause, process, effects and treatment of child and adolescent mental health disorders. Since its establishment in 2010, the CCF has secured more than $133m in external funding for research from sources like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Institution of Education Sciences (IES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), The Children’s Trust and the State of Florida, among others. The CCF also provides training and education to hundreds of students, and continuing education opportunities in evidence-based approaches to thousands of psychologists, mental health professionals and educators nationwide.
About FIU:
Florida International University, a public university located in Miami, has a passion for student success and community solutions. The university is classified by Carnegie as “R1.” FIU is among the top 100 public universities in U.S. News and World Report’s 2019 Best Colleges and 18 academic programs are individually ranked. FIU was recently ranked as the second best performing university in Florida and graduates are among the highest-paid in the state. FIU has multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility and FIU’s Medina Aquarius Program. FIU has awarded more than 330,000 degrees since 1972 and enrolls more than 57,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and sites in Qingdao and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA with more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit www.fiu.edu.
